Lulz Security Collective: A Return to Old School Hacking?

UK authorities have arrested a 19-year-old under suspicion for his potential connection to the hacking group LulzSec. The group has claimed to have pulled off attacks on PBS, Sony and the Senate.

The group has a mischievous persona. It has set up a hotline for people to call in and suggest sites that should be attacked. The recorded voice that answers claims, in an exaggerated French accent, that "Pierre Dubois and Franvois Deluxe" are not available because they’re out hacking websites. Yesterday, they announced that they're teaming up with Anonymous, another hacking group with a deeper political bent.

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In a lot of ways they're highlighting what many people in security have been trying to say, the fact that most computer systems and networks are pretty wide open to be hacked into and what we’re seeing here is a handful of folks who aren’t even directly trying to do malicious things in a sense that there is a lot worst things that they could be doing.

Is Lulz Sec a legitimate threat? And if they’re not, how are they getting into these networks?

Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer at eEye Digital Security, says the group is reflective of a throwback to old school hacking, where hacking was done for the fun of it, and are proving that there are major faults in the business and governmental online infrastructure.